Did the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals depart from this Court's decisions in Mattox v. United States, 146 U.S. 140 (1892) and Parker v. Gladden, 385 U.S. 363 (1966) in barring the testimony about juror misconduct?

QUESTION PRESENTED During petitioner’s trial for capital murder, the jury foreperson told the other jurors misleading and prejudicial information about petitioner’s prior convictions. The information imparted by the foreperson was not part of the trial record. Indeed, the court had excluded the details of petitioner’s prior convictions from the evidence that could be offered at trial. After discovering the foreperson’s misconduct, petitioner sought a new trial, claiming a violation of his Sixth Amendment rights. But the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals held that consideration of juror testimony about the foreperson’s statements was barred by a rule of evidence generally forbidding the introduction of juror testimony when offered to challenge a verdict. The question presented is: Did the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals depart from this Court’s decisions in Mattox v. United States, 146 U.S. 140 (1892) and Parker v. Gladden, 385 U.S. 363 (1966) in barring the testimony about juror misconduct? @)